39. Day / 4th winter trip

Breakfast at the SGS, a dream after all the other hotels! To our astonishment, we received a new menu this morning, which contained very interesting new dishes to choose from, including:
- Quinoa Salad; Roast eggplant and cherry tomato with black & white Quinoa, fried egg
- Double Brie & Creamed Spinach Omelet
- River Prawn & Crab omelette (with prawn bisque sauce)
- Caramelized Brioche French Toast (with Champagne strawberry jam & lemon curd)


For V. we ordered the quinoa salad, which was served with poached egg instead of 'fried egg',


for me the prawn / crab omelette in the prawn bisque.


The quinoa salad was very tasty for such a healthy dish, the omelette however excellent, with a lot of crab meat and a very tasty, beautifully reduced sauce.

Since we were in Bangkok only for one day, we had to start soon, had a whole list of 'to-do's'. Among other things, the AIS Internet package had to be renewed - very important for navigation purpose.

Back at the hotel, we went to the gym and afterwards still in the hot blubber jacuzzi, somewhat relaxed. Then it was already time for lunch, V. had been hungry - I really don't know how she would eat so much. So again to TOPS supermarket (for me, there was just a protein shake & papaya).

After we had refueled, we went back to Emporium shopping mall, where I wanted to get a pair of NIKE sneakers. The selection in Thailand was, however, not to my liking, so instead I purchased a pair of white Adidas Superstars from a special edition.

From there we walked to SIXT at Rama IV. Actually we wanted to take a taxi - but the traffic jam convinced us to walk. This was the right decision, because the cars we 'overtook' on the sidewalk we never saw again.

I had booked a Toyota Fortuner with SIXT, with the promise to get a BMW 5 Series as upgrade. And what did I see at SIXT? A Fortuner! The friendly gentleman told me that the previous tenant hadn't returned THE 5 series yet. Do they have only one? I was then somewhat pissed, no upgrade as Diamond? So then they offered me a rate two groups lower than the Fortuner, at least a nice discount.

At least we were given the newest model, looks chic, drives and vibrates (old-style diesel-engine) like the old model. On the end it's a truck with a SUV cover.

Directly driven to Soi 20, to the tailor, another try of the shirts after they were made a little tighter. Of course, how could it be different in Thailand, the shirts had been tightened by 2 inches instead of 2 centimeters, I looked like a sausage in its casing. Now new shirts would have to be made, from scratch - so the process would start again at lever zero...

Through the after-work traffic jam to the hotel, we had to select a restaurant for dinner.

As we were mobile, we decided to chose something new, in the northern part of Bangkok.


The 'Janhom' restaurant is supposedly the best southern Thai cuisine spot in Bangkok, we were eager. Google Maps showed 9 kilometers and 35 minutes driving time. With the giant car it was then also a bit of a stress to get out of the inner city by narrow streets, with traffic and motorcyclists.

At least the restaurant offered a large parking lot, filled with BMW and Mercedes models.

Crossed the street,


took a look inside


and, because of arctic temperatures, selected an outside table.

We got the menu, which was in Thai with English subtitles. However, I already knew what we wanted to eat, gave our order. English was surprisingly no problem.

First came a bowl of ice-cooled herbs and vegetables


as well as a typical southern Thai vegetable dish ('Yod liang pad kai', melinjo leaves, fried with egg and dried shrimps)


and 'Moo Ko', marinated pieces of pork belly, fried crispy with garlic.


This was already a good start,


the vegetables delicious in taste, the pork belly crisp - but of course extremely fatty.

Already arrived the main courses, 'Gaeng leung pal kapong', southern Thai yellow curry with fish and bamboo.


In contrast to traditional yellow curry, which is slightly sweet, the southern Thai version is slightly sour - not our thing, although the fish was beautifully juicy and the bamboo crunchy.

The highlight, however, was clearly 'Lon neau boo maa', the meat of blue swimming crab, cooked in a stock of lemongrass, chili and coconut milk, cooked until reduced viscidly.


Mixed with some rice, this was probably the best dish I ever had in a proper restaurant in Bangkok.

Some Stir-Fried Morning Glory with chili and garlic, also top notch.


We paid close to 1000 Baht paid and took of back to the Sukhumvit area, there was still space for a dessert. And if you had the best dinner, it must also be the best dessert - at 'Charcoal Tandoor Grill & Mixology' on Soi 11.

Car parked in the car park and up to the restaurant,

(that day with nice live music)

Informed that we wanted only 'dessert'. Due to this the manager arrived at our table, who asked us 'why?'. I explained kindly and he was enthusiastic about someone rating their desserts for the best of the city.

We came into conversation and he informed that their chef had previously worked in the 'Bukhara' at ITC Maurya in Delhi. He frankly admitted that the quality of 'Bukhara' could not be achieved in Bangkok, because of the availability of several ingredients.

After the conversation we ordered 'Kulfi',


the semi-frozen from sweet condensed milk, and 'Asal Ka Shahi Tukda',


a crispy slice of white bread, with sweet condensed milk, saffron, covered with chopped almonds and pistachios, and a thin wafer of silver - on the house. What a gesture!

Happy we went back to our 'Vibrator', drove back to the hotel and packed suitcases.